Diary of an Avenger - Rebirthing
by Arrowhead1996
Summary: Tony and Diana Stark have settled in Malibu for Christmas. Little do they know that a hero will be needed to save the world, yet again. But will this adventure tear them apart? Or will it bring them closer together? Sequel to Diary of an Avenger.
1. Prologue

**Okay... I totally deserve any flack for not continuing this story in ages. I really am going to do better, I promise.**

 **So... This is the second book in my Diary of an Avenger series. It takes place during the Iron Man 3 movie. I hope you all like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any related characters. Marvel does, and unfortunately, Disney owns Marvel.**

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Prologue

'We create our own demons.'

I don't really know who said this, or why he said it, but it certainly applies to what happened over Christmas. Who knew that some of Tony's decisions so many years ago would have caused so many problems now.

It all started thirteen years ago on New Year's Eve. Tony was at a party in Bern, Switzerland. I wasn't there at the time. It was before we had truely mended our friendship, but I doubt I would have gone anyway. I still dislike large parties.

Anyway... The way Tony tells it, he had hooked up with a pretty, dark-haired botanist who first caught his attention because of her work in genetics. He was heading upstairs to her room so that she could show him what she was working on, among other things. In the elevator, a guy came up to them, trying to get Tony to help out with his organization.

Aldridge Killian. Back then he could barely walk, he wore big, nerdy glasses, and his blond hair was long and unkempt. Tony doesn't specifically remember what he looked like, but I found a picture in the SHIELD database.

His organization was called AIM: Advanced Idea Mechanics. Tony wasn't even remotely interested. He diverted Killian to the roof and never gave him a second thought.

Meanwhile, Tony's botanist friend was capturing his attention with her work. It was something to do with parts of the brain that worked on repair. Regrowing limbs and things of that sort. Unfortunately, there was a glitch. Sometimes the plants she was experimenting with would blow up. She wasn't sure what it was that caused that to happen, but she was hoping that Tony would be able to help her with it.

Tony left before she woke up like he usually did back then. After his brief time in Afghanistan, he said good-bye to his partying life mostly. We healed our relationship, and everything was fine for us.

New York was still rebuilding when we went to Malibu for Christmas. The first Christmas after New York. We were part of the Avengers now, and we could never forget that. Tony threw himself even more into developing his suits. Pepper continued her work with the company. Me? I did what I always did. I helped Tony with his work.


	2. 72 Hours

**And here's chapter one! I hope you all like it! I know it's kinda long, but this part didn't really lend itself to getting cut off any sooner.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any related characters. Marvel does, and unfortunately, Disney owns Marvel.**

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Chapter One

72 Hours

Diana sat perched on a pile of boxes and looked down into the room where Tony was working on his newest suit of armor. JARVIS counted as Tony injected himself with micro-repeaters.

"I've also prepared a safety breifing for you to entirely ignore," the AI informed him.

"Which I will. Let's do this." Tony looked up and adressed a robotic arm that was holding a broom and had a dunce cap on it's head. "Dummy! Hi, Dummy. How did you get that cap on your head? You've earned it." He directed the robot to take care of some blood on his mat and headed to the larger area of the room.

"You should be nicer to your things," Diana told him.

He shot her a look. "Says the girl who can't even manage to fly without completely wrecking her suit."

She glared at him. "Hey, my suit isn't made out of metal. It's cloth... sorta."

"Whatever."

"Sir, may I remind you that you've been awake for over 72 hours," JARVIS pointed out.

"Focus up, ladies," Tony said, adressing his other Iron Man suits and ignoring the AI. "Good evening, and welcome to the birthing suite. I am pleased to anounce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, baby brother." He gave brief instructions to JARVIS on how he wanted the camera angle done, then continued. "Mark 42. Autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Initialize sequence." He tapped out a beat on his fingers, and a small part of his new suit lit up on the worktable.

"JARVIS, drop my needle." The needle dropped on a nearby record player and a version of Jingle Bells began playing. Tony danced to it for a moment before calling the first piece of his armor to him. It took three tries, but he finally managed to get the left hand of the suit to fly to him. It molded right onto his hand and Diana smiled.

The rest of the left arm attatched itself to him and then he called for the right hand. Pleased with the sucess, he smiled. "Alright, I think we've got this, send them all." Diana arched one eyebrow. This could prove interesting.

The right leg came to him and spread over his leg. Then things started going a little wonkey. One part zoomed right past him and crashed into one of the display cases for the other suits. Another piece was barely deflected by Tony, and went crashing into something on the wall. "Probably a little fast, slow it down." Tony called. If there was a speed change, Diana didn't notice it. One part slammed into his front, and another part slammed into his back sending him flying forward and making him catch himself with his repulsors.

Diana sat up a little straighter, concerned as most of the rest of the suit settled onto his body. Then the faceplate zoomed past him and slammed into the record player, stopping the music. Diana winced, but Tony was just focused on the faceplate. It lifted up on it's own little hover-jets and sort of looked at Tony. "Come on," Tony told it. "I ain't scared of you." The faceplate moved toward him, but the bottom edge hit a table and flipped itself upside down.

Tony waited a moment to see if it would fix itself, but in the end, he had to jump upside down with his repulsors to get it on correctly. He landed in his classic Iron Man pose. Diana smiled. He looked so cool in that pose. "I'm the best," he said. At that moment, another part that hadn't quite attatched yet, flew in and slammed into him knocking the rest of the suit off of him and sending him sprawling on the floor.

Diana gasped and hurried down. "Are you alright?" she asked anxiously as he sat up and removed the faceplate of his helmet which was the only part of the armor that hadn't fallen off.

"As always sir, a great pleasure watching you work," JARVIS said. Tony sat up slowly, and Diana noticed that his lip was bleeding. She quickly crossed the room and grabbed a first-aid kit before hurrying back over and taking care of the cut after Tony removed the helmet.

"Maybe 72 hours is a little too long to go without sleep," she said quietly as she finished with the cut.

"Maybe," Tony agreed, and Diana raised her eyebrows a little at him but didn't comment.

She convinced him to come upstairs and get something to eat at the very least. He agreed and, while Diana went into the kitchen to rustle up something simple, Tony crashed in the living room and turned on the TV.

Only a few moments later, Diana heard Tony call for her. The call was loud and sharp, a demanding, Iron Man call. She rushed to the living room and stared, horrified at the screen. It showed images of an Asian-looking man with a long beard and a top-knot of hair. There were gunshots, and a line of men fell as the Asian man walked calmly away.

Then a voice began speaking. "Some people call me a terrorist. I think of myself as a teacher." Old images of some kids in cowboy outfits, and women in nice outfits flashed by. "America. Ready for another lesson?" More images flashed of fields and indians and the man continued speaking. "In 1864, in Sand Creek, Colorado, the US military waited until the friendly Cheyenne braves had all gone hunting. Waited to attack and slaughter the families left behind and claim their land.

"39 hours ago, the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait was attacked. I... I... I did that," the man smiled, as though he was proud of what he had done, and Diana leaned against the back of the couch for support. "A quaint military church filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on maneuvers. The Braves were away." This time, Diana had to sit down or risk falling down. "President Ellis. You continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now, you've missed me again." Images shifted of men cheering, their cries turning to a roar in the back of her mind as Diana stared blankly at the TV. "You know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you'll never see me coming." More images of guns and shouting and explosions, and then the screen switched back to the regular news channels.

Of course, everyone wanted to rehash what had happened, but Diana just stared at the screen, barely registering as Tony flipped through a couple of channels and every one of them was just about the same thing. It wasn't until Diana heard Rhody's name mentioned that she tuned back in. The president was talking about him. He was to pilot his old War Machine armor that Tony had given him during the Palladium Panic. The armor had been painted in red, white, and blue, like someone was trying to cross Iron Man with Captain America, and it had been given a new name: The Iron Patriot.

People were still talking about it on TV when Tony and Diana met Rhody for lunch at a bar/restaraunt the next day. Tony wasn't impressed, the Rhody said that the name had tested well with focus groups. "War Machine was too agressive, this sends a better message."

"So what's really going on," Tony asked, deciding to change the subject. "With the Mandarin." Rhody gave him a significant look, clearly not wanting to talk about it, but not seeing much choice. Tony would find a way to get the information one way or another.

The two of them scooted closer together, and Diana leaned forward across the table. "This is Classified information, Tony," Rhody said, but he didn't stop talking. "Okay, there have been nine bombings. The public only knows about three. Nobody and ID a device. There's no bomb casings."

"You know I can help," Tony offered, and Diana nodded. "Just ask. I've got a ton of new tech. I've got a prehensile suit. I've got bomb disposal, catches explosions in midair."

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?" Rhody asked knowingly.

"Einstine slept three hours a year. Look what he did."

"We're concerned about you, Tony. I'm concerned about you," he replied.

"You're gonna come at me like that?" Tony asked, and Diana sighed. Rhody was frustrated too, but his rant was interrupted by two kids approaching him for an autograph on a picture that the girl had drawn of Tony flying the nuke into the wormhole in New York.

Diana sucked in a wary breath. She knew that Tony's most recent nightmares, and the reason he hadn't been sleeping lately, had been because of New York. For some reason, almost dying, and going through that wormhole had really messed with Tony's head.

Rhody was still talking, but Diana wasn't really listening. Her focus was on Tony, her heartrate speeding up as he started getting jittery. Then he pushed too hard on the paper and broke the crayon he had been using to sign the picture. "Tony?" Diana said, trying to keep her voice calm as a scared look suddenly flashed up on Tony's face. Then the little kid, the girl's brother, leaned in close and whispered something in Tony's ear. That was the last straw, and Tony got up quickly hurried out of the bar.

Diana followed him, Rhody right on her heels. They found him crouched in his suit, which he had used to get there. Rhody tapped on his visor, "Come on, man, this isn't a good look, open up."

But Tony just pushed him aside. "Sorry, I've gotta split." And he took off back to the house.

Diana sighed and shook her head. "You've always been concerned about looks, Rhody," she admonished him. "Tony is only human."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rhody asked, sounding a little hurt.

"He's been having trouble since New York. He's still getting over it."

Rhody nodded, looking a bit guilty. "Let me give you a ride home," he offered, but Diana shook her head.

"No, I've got my ride. Thanks anyway. I'll call you later." She smiled gently at him, then went to find her dark green, Mini Cooper Convertable Sport in the parking lot.

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	3. Giant Bunnies

**Sorry this is so late, I'll try to be more consistent. I hope you guys are enjoying this. Things will get more interesting soon.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any related characters. Marvel does, and unfortunately, Disney owns Marvel.**

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Chapter Two

Giant Bunnies

Diana arrived back at the house just in time to hear Tony hanging up on a call with Happy. "Thanks for leaving me at the bar," she called sarcastically to her brother as she kicked off her shoes at the bottom of the stairs.

"Sorry, I had a thing that I... had to... do." He didn't sound very apologetic, but Diana decided to let it slide this time.

"Was that Happy?" she asked, perching herself on her usual pile of boxes.

"Yep. Some guy called Aldridge Killian came by to see Pepper today." Tony didn't do emotion well, but Diana could still tell that he was upset about it.

"And?"

"And I don't like it." He started fiddling with his controller for the new armor.

Diana sighed. There wasn't much she could do about it. Instead, she started telling her diary what had happened that day, pouring out her worries about Tony and the Mandarin onto it's well-worn pages.

A little while later, Diana heard an alert that Pepper had returned home. Tony had long since turned on some music, and even gotten himself some food. Unfortunately, he seemed to think it was a good idea to send his new armor upstairs to greet Pepper.

About half-way through their remote conversation, after Tony had asked Pepper how she'd liked the giant bunny that had greeted her when she pulled up, Diana snuck part-way up the stairs and called out, "We're down here, Pepper!"

"Diana!" Tony shouted, his voice clearly audible from both the suit and the garage downstairs.

Pepper descended the stairs, sending a grateful smile to Diana before turning on her frustrated face for Tony. "This is a new level of Lame," she informed her boyfriend, shoving aside Dummy's offer of a plate of food.

"Sorry," Tony replied, not sounding really very sorry.

"You ate without me?" she asked, sounding hurt. "Already? On Date Night?"

Tony started to fumble through an explanation, but Diana cut him off, stepping around the Mark 42 armor to swipe something from one of the plates. "He heard about Aldridge Killian and got mad," she stated simply.

"Diana!" Tony protested. "Stop telling her everything. It's really annoying."

"No," she replied flatly. "She deserves to know the truth."

"You were spying on me?" Pepper asked angrily.

"Happy was concerned," Tony tried to reason with her, but she wasn't listening.

"I'm going to bed." Pepper turned and started toward the stairs.

"Pep! Alright, I admit it, my fault." This got her to stop and turn back to him. "I'm a piping hot mess. It's been going on for a while, I hadn't said anything." Pepper came back down the stairs, and Diana sat down. She knew this moment was mainly for Tony and Pepper, but she needed to hear this too.

"Nothing's been the same since New York."

"Oh, really?" Pepper asked sarcastically. "Well, I didn't notice that... at all."

"You experience things," Tony continued. "Then they're over and you still can't explain them? Gods, Aliens, other dimensions, I'm just a man in a can." Diana wanted to protest, but she managed to keep her mouth shut.

Tony moved toward Pepper, probably hoping to add more weight to his words. "The only reason I haven't cracked up, is probably because you moved in. Which is great! I love you, I'm lucky. But Honey, I can't sleep. You go to bed I come down here, I do what I know. I tinker." He sat down on a cart behind him. "Threat is imminent, and I have to protect the one thing that I can't live without," he gestured to Pepper, and then Diana. "That's you. And my suits, they're, uh..."

"They're things," Pepper finished.

"They're a part of me."

"They're a distraction."

"Maybe," Tony admitted.

Pepper approached, smiling sadly and pulled his head close, resting her chin on top of it, comforting him and letting him hold her as his hands slid up her back. Diana smiled and slipped away to her own room.

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	4. Nighttime Talks Among Girls

**Sorry this is so late, I'll try to be more consistent. I hope you guys are enjoying this. Things will get more interesting soon.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any related characters. Marvel does, and unfortunately, Disney owns Marvel.**

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Chapter Three

Nighttime Talks Among Girls

Tony wasn't the only one who had been having trouble with sleep since New York. However, unlike Tony's nightmares, Diana's trouble manifested in the form of suddenly becoming an extremely light sleeper. The smallest of sounds or movements would wake her up. So it was no surprise when sounds from Tony and Pepper's room startled her from her sleep. She took a moment to understand that the sound had been a loud crash, and then voices. She stood up and wrapped a robe around herself, before leaving her room to search out the disturbance.

She ran into Pepper in the hallway. "Pepper?" she asked, surprised. "What happened?"

The older woman seemed to be trying to hold back tears. "Nothing, Di," she said, trying, and failing, to summon a smile. "I'm fine. Just go back to sleep." But Diana wasn't going to just take that answer. She wrapped an arm around Pepper's shoulders, and steered her toward the kitchen. Pepper didn't protest.

Ten minutes later two cups, one of tea and one of hot chocolate, were sitting on the coffee table and the two women were sitting curled up on the couch. "Spill," Diana insisted.

Pepper reluctantly told her about Tony's newest suit coming into their room and attacking her when Tony had been in the middle of a nightmare. Diana nodded in understanding and took a sip of her hot chocolate.

"Why are you angry?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"Those suits are consuming him," Pepper replied. "And now they're even dangerous to his friends! If he hadn't woken up when he had, who knows what would've happened."

Diana hummed thoughtfully and took another sip. "Is it really the suits, or that he's changed?"

"What?"

"You've been on edge since we got back from New York. We all have, but you were the only one who wasn't there. You didn't see it happen, you only heard about it. And that scares you. You don't know what we went through, so you don't know how to help. Tony has been channeling everything into the suits, using Iron Man as a mask or wall to hide behind. Tonight that wall smacked you right in the face. I think you're afraid that he is too far gone and you will never be able to catch him again."

Pepper stared at her over her mug. The tea was still steaming, but the red-head hadn't taken a single sip. "How do you do that?" Pepper asked, astonished.

Diana shrugged. "I just speculated. I don't have much to do other than provide Tony with a sounding board."

Pepper smiled and reached over to pat her knee. "Thank you, but I don't think I can go back in there tonight."

Diana shook her head. "I wouldn't expect you to. I just wanted to make sure someone could get some sleep tonight."

Pepper looked at her in concern. "Still having trouble with that?"

Diana nodded. "It's gotten worse since that dream about Loki." A couple weeks ago, Diana had finally gotten into a deep enough sleep that she could dream. Unfortunately, the dream had been about Loki trying to take over her mind. Ever since, her already lightened sleep had gotten even lighter. "I wake myself up moving," she told Pepper. "The wind outside sounds like his laugh sometimes."

"I wish I could help. Have you tried sleeping with music?"

Diana nodded. "Yes, I did. Every time the song changes, I wake up."

Pepper sighed sadly. "I'm sorry."

Diana shook her head and stood. "Thank you. I should get back to bed. I need to get as much as I can." Diana dropped a kiss on Pepper's head as she went by. "I know you'll figure it out, Pep. He loves you, and you love him. I know you'll figure it out." With that, she returned to her room.

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	5. Un-Happy

**This chapter will be a smidge longer. Things are starting to heat up, and that means the story will be more interesting as well.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any related characters. Marvel does, and unfortunately, Disney owns Marvel.**

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Chapter Four  
Un-Happy

Diana was able to sleep through the night, but she woke to a quiet alarm from Jarvis. "Miss Stark, I'm afraid there's been another attack. The Mandarin has claimed responsibility. Also, Happy was involved in the bombing." That woke Diana right up.  
The Mandarin's video was even more of a taunt this time. Jarvis gave her a summary, but Diana was glad that she hadn't had to watch it this time. She and Tony went to the hospital together to see Happy. He was in a coma, and on life support. He'd been badly injured, and the doctors weren't sure if he would ever wake up.  
They left after sitting with him for a while, and were instantly swarmed by reporters when the exited the building. Diana clung to Tony's arm, keeping her head down and just moving forward. She still wasn't a very prominent figure in the media, but she was still easily recognizable.  
It wasn't until they got to the car and Diana had split from Tony to get in on the other side that it happened. One of the reporters called out above the din from the others. "Mr. Stark! When is somebody going to kill this guy?" It got, not only Tony and Diana's attention, but also the other reporters. Tony turned slowly to face him. "Just saying."  
"Is that what you want?" Tony asked. He was quiet for a moment before continuing. "Here's a little Holiday greeting I've been wanting to send to the Mandarin. I just didn't know how to phrase it until now. My name is Tony Stark, and I'm not afraid of you. I know you're a coward. So I've decided, that you just die, pal."  
"Tony!" Diana snapped angrily. She knew he was angry about Happy's injury, but this was just too far.  
Tony ignored her. "I'm gonna come get the body. There's no politics here, just good, old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon, it's just you and me. On the off-chance you're a man, here's my home address."  
"Tony, stop!" Diana shouted, but it was useless. The reporters were pressed too closely together, and Tony was still ignoring her.  
"10880 Malibu Point, 90265. I'll leave the door unlocked." He then focused on the guy who'd asked the question in the first place. "That's what you wanted, right?" he asked, grabbing the guy's video phone from his hands, then turning and lobbing across the car and into a pillar on the other side. The reporters ducked and cried out, but as the phone whistled past her head, Diana didn't even flinch. She was too busy glaring daggers at her brother. "Bill me," he told the guy, then he simply got in the car. Diana entered as well, but didn't say a word the entire drive back home.

The drive back was silent. When they got home, Diana went straight upstairs where she found Pepper already packing up. Without a word, Diana moved to join her.  
Diana's thoughts were all over the place. She was so angry with Tony, that she could barely think at all. As she stuffed clothing into a bag, she tried to understand what had caused this strange burst of stupidity from her normally intelligent brother.  
She heard the sound of helicopters outside her window and peered out to see several news 'copters surrounding the house. She sighed and rolled her eyes. As she continued packing, she told Jarvis to close the curtains on her windows. If the press wanted to get a look at the more elusive of the Stark siblings. they were going to be disappointed.  
As she finished packing, Diana decided to go for a slight outfit change. She changed in to the rocket boots that went with her Concerta costume. If Tony was going to threaten the world's most infamous terrorist, then she was going to be ready.  
She was suddenly startled out of her thoughts by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Shocked and amazed, she turned towards the nearest wall display, Jarvis pulling up the feed of the front door before she could even ask. A woman stood there. She had dark hair, and a bag over her shoulder.  
Diana went down the stairs with her bag, just in time to hear Tony say, "Don't take it personally, I don't remember what I had for breakfast."  
"Gluten-free waffles, Sir," Jarivs chimed in helpfully.  
"Look," the woman said, (why hadn't she introduced herself yet?) "I need to talk to you in private, someplace not here. It's kind of urgent."  
As Diana came to the bottom of the stairs, she thunked her bag down on the floor hard. Pepper's giant bunny had been moved inside the house, somehow, and was now sitting right in front of the stairs.  
Diana was impressed to see that Tony had at least gone to meet his unknown visitor in his Iron Man suit. "Normally, I'd go for that sort of thing," Tony replied, finally stepping out of his suit. "But now I'm in a committed relationship-" two bags dropped down from the second floor. "With her."  
"Tony!" Pepper called before coming down the stairs. "Is somebody there?"  
"Yeah, it's Maya Hanson," Tony replied. Maya smiled, clearly happy that he remembered her. "Old botanist pal that I used to know... barely."  
Diana helped Pepper get down off the stairs and then jumped down after her. "I'm sorry," Pepper said, walking over to Tony with Diana following closely. "With Happy in the hospital, I didn't know we were expecting guests."  
"We weren't," Tony said quickly, clearly trying to cut her rant off before it could get really started.  
"Or old girlfriends!" Clearly it didn't work.  
"It was just one night," Maya said casually.  
"That's how you did it back then, wasn't it?" Pepper said. "Well, you saved yourself a world of pain," Pepper assured Maya. "Trust me."  
"What?" Tony protested, but Pepper wasn't listening to him.  
Pepper then turned to Tony, "We're going out of town."  
"Alright, we've been through this. Nope!"  
"Yep! Immediately and indefinitely."  
"The man says no."  
"Right now," Diana cut in, "the man doesn't get a say."  
Even Maya seemed to agree with Pepper and Diana. "That's a great idea," she said.  
"I'm sorry," Tony interrupted, "that's a terrible idea. Please don't touch her bags."  
"This is how normal people behave," Pepper explained.  
"I can't protect you out there!" Tony protested.  
"We can protect ourselves!" Diana shot back.  
"Is... is that normal?" Maya asked, having caught sight of the giant bunny.  
"Sadly, that is very normal," Pepper said.  
"Yes, this is normal!" Tony added. "It's a big bunny. Relax about it!"  
"Calm down!" Pepper admonished him.  
"I got this for you!" Tony said.  
"I'm aware of that."  
"You still haven't even told me you liked it."  
"I don't like it!"  
"I asked you three-" then he realized what she'd said. "You don't like it."  
"We are leaving the house!" Pepper shouted, trying to get the argument back on track.  
It took several tries for Maya to get their attention. She was pointing at the TV screen which was showing footage of the house. "Do we need to worry about that?"  
Suddenly they were all very quiet. On the TV, there was a smoke trail heading straight for the house. They all turned just in time for something to smash through the window and explode against the wall. They were all sent flying backward. In mid-air, Tony sent the Iron Man suit to Pepper, encasing her in a protective shield before she hit the wall. Diana managed to twist and fire off a blast with her rocket boots just enough to lessen her impact with the wall. It wasn't much, but it let her get up not long after hitting.  
Maya was unconscious, and Tony currently had no suit. The ceiling was cracking as the house began to collapse. Thankfully, Pepper managed to get to Tony before a piece of debris could hit him. "I got you," she said, flipping her mask up.  
"I got you first," Tony countered. "Like I said, we can't stay here." He got up, but then they were hit again and he was thrown away from them. "Go! I'm right behind you!" Unfortunately, a gap opened up in the floor, making impossible for him to follow through on his promise.  
"Get her out of here!" he yelled, gesturing to Maya. "I'll find a way around!" Pepper didn't move. "Stop stopping and go. Go!" Finally, Pepper moved, and got Maya out of the crumbling house.  
Diana rocketed over to him. "Grab onto me! I'll get you over!"  
"No! Your boots aren't strong enough!" More explosions cut off their argument as the floor sharply tilted and Tony was thrown against one of the support columns. Diana started to use her boots, but falling debris knocked into her, sending her tumbling out of the air.  
She scrambled for something, anything to latch onto. Unfortunately, she hadn't been near a convenient column when she fell. She smashed straight through the window and out toward the ocean below.

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	6. The Artist

**And here we go! Things are exploding, and Diana is caught in the blast.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any related characters. Marvel owns them, and Disney owns Marvel.**

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Chapter Five

The Artist

Sound. What was that? It rushed, then receded, then rushed again.

Cold. Why was she cold? It soaked into her skin, and down to the bone.

Finally, she managed to crack her eyes open. Light was filtering through her dark hair, which lay in a tangled mass over her face. She lifted a hand to push it away, then sat up. She was on a beach. Off to her left, a plume of smoke rose into the air.

Everything rushed back to her. Diana tried to stand, but her shoes wouldn't support her. She looked down and saw that the rockets built into the sides of the boots had been smashed. Unfortunately, not before melting her shoes into lumps. She kicked them off, and then yanked her scorched socks off before standing up. The sand was cold and damp, but at least it wasn't burning.

Diana reached for her phone, yanking it out of her pocket and checking that it still worked. It did. Whatever she thought about Tony, she had to admit, he made some resilient, and amazing tech. She pressed the button to call him, but it went straight to voicemail. She left a quick message, begging him to call her ASAP, then called Pepper. This time, she got an answer.

"Diana?!"

"Pepper, it's me!"

"Oh, thank God! I can't get ahold of Tony, and I was so worried about you. I was just about to try calling."

"Good thing I called first. Hey, listen, can you come pick me up? Or send someone? My boots melted, and I don't fancy walking all the way back in bare feet."

"Of course. I'll be right there."

Diana could still hear the worry in Pepper's voice, and she hurried to reassure her. "He's gonna be okay, Pepper."

"I hope you're right."

Once the two of them had been reunited, Pepper drove her back to the house. Or, more specifically, where the house used to be. The structure was now gone. It looked like the only thing that had survived, was the underground section where Tony kept the multiple versions of the armor. However, even that was blocked by debris. Diana picked her way carefully through, to stand with Pepper on the edge of the cliff, looking out over the ocean.

Diana still had no idea how she'd survived. Maybe her boots had just fired her off out of the debris, and she'd managed to wash up on shore. But how had she not drowned? That wasn't important, right now. What was important, was finding Tony.

Crews had already started working on clearing the debris, but all Diana could think was, 'What now?' Pepper had found a scarred Iron Man helmet in the debris, and was now holding it, in her hands.

Diana couldn't take it any more, having managed to find a pair of shoes in the debris, she stormed away. She just couldn't take it anymore. She had to get out of there. Her car had been far enough away, that it was still okay, and she jumped in without a backward glance and started to drive away. She was stopped by a police officer who insisted that she return to the sight. For once, Diana tapped into the legendary Stark attitude and informed him that her brother was missing, and her home was in ruins. There was no way she was sticking around any longer than she needed to.

Reluctantly, the officer let her go, and she drove into the city.

One of Diana's favorite things to do, when she wasn't hiding from the press or helping Tony with his projects, was go to the Getty art museum. She liked to look at the paintings, even the completely arbitrary ones that could've been done by anyone, and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Today, she took a moment to clean herself up in the bathroom before beginning her slow, not-really-looking-at-the-art stroll through the exhibits. She was so out of it, that she accidentally ran right into a guy. Thankfully, that managed to snap her out of the fog she'd been in since she left the house.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she apologized.

"It's alright," he replied in a soft, British accent. "Neither was I."

For one extremely odd moment when she heard his voice, Diana's thoughts snapped to Loki, but she finally managed to get a good look at him and shake that image out of her head. This guy had dark hair that fell into his eyes a bit. He had dark brown eyes, and a kind smile. "Are you alright? You seem a bit..."

Diana shook her head. "I'm fine. Just have a lot on my mind."

"Perhaps it would be better that you sit down then, rather than run the risk of running into someone who won't be as nice as me about it."

That brought a small smile to Diana's face and she nodded. "You're probably right."

"There's a nice little cafe not far from here. Allow me to get you something."

"That's not necessary," she assured him.

"Please. I'd feel better knowing you were somewhere you could relax and not get hurt."

Diana looked up at him and nodded. "Alright."

He smiled, "Good! I'm Aaron."

"Diana."

The cafe was nice and quiet. It seemed everyone had decided to stay home today because of the bombings. After getting her settled in a booth and asking her what she wanted, Aaron got a coffee for himself and a hot chocolate for Diana.

For a moment after he sat down, Diana simply stared out the window, barely noticing the few people who were out. Then her phone rang, Pepper's picture popping up on the screen. Diana pressed the ignore button and laid the device down on the table.

"I thought you looked familiar," Aaron said quietly.

Diana looked at him quickly. "What?"

He gestured to the Stark Phone now sitting on the table. "You're Diana Stark."

She nodded. "Is that a problem?"

"No. I just find it interesting that you don't advertise it. Your brother doesn't seem to have that problem."

Diana chuckled darkly. "Tony has never had a problem with the spotlight. Even when we were little. That's why it's so hard right now. He's missing and I don't know what to do. It's like when he was captured. That same feeling of fear." Her phone rang again and she hit ignore again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be dumping this on you." She wrapped her hands around her mug and tried to hold back the tears.

Aaron reached forward and took one of her hands in his. "It's alright. If I didn't care, I wouldn't have brought you here."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Let's just say I've used that facial expression before. The one you had at the museum. I just had to help."

Diana looked down at were their hands were connected and shifted her hand so she was holding his. "Thank you, Aaron. I don't really know you, but you've helped me more than I can say."

He smiled gently. "I'm just glad I listened when I felt the urge to help. Iant certainly works in mysterious ways."

Diana smiled, a thrill of joy shooting through her as the realization that he'd mentioned Iant settled in. "He certainly does." She lifted one hand to wipe her eyes, and Aaron produced a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. She thanked him and patted the tears from her eyes.

Her phone rang yet again. This time, she tapped 'Accept,' "Hello?"

Pepper's voice came through the speaker. "Diana! I just got a message from him! Can you come back?"

Diana's face lit up with a smile. "I'll be right over." She ended the call and shoved her phone in her pocket. She turned to Aaron, "Listen, thanks for everything. I gotta go."

"Of course," he replied standing and holding out his hand for her to take. Once she was standing, he handed her his card. "This has my number on it. If you ever need someone to talk to..."

She smiled at him. "I will, thanks again." She then turned and hurried out to her car.

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